Sheriff Clarence Dupnik of Tucson, Arizona, has become the spokesman for blaming right-wing “vitriol” for the shooting by deranged gunman Jared Lee Loughner.
Dupnik made national fame last spring when he announced that he would refuse to enforce the new Arizona immigration law and for his flamboyant statements accusing immigration enforcement supporters of being racist.
As part of this media feeding frenzy, Sarah Palin has been accused of having “blood on her hands” by a New York Daily News columnist and numerous left-wing bloggers even though there is no evidence whatsoever that Loughner ever even saw the map which appeared on Palin’s website of targeted congressional districts.
These clips from Dupnik’s press conference have been cited across the internet and media to support Dupnik’s view and the right-wing vitriol meme:
http://c.brightcove.com/services/viewer/federated_f9?isVid=1
http://c.brightcove.com/services/viewer/federated_f9?isVid=1
But Meghyn Kelly has forced Dupnik to admit that as of this afternoon, Dupnik had absolutely no evidence as to any connection between such allegedly vitriolic political rhetoric and the shooting.
Dupnik admitted “it’s just my opinion period” and that “I don’t have that information yet” when pressed as to whether he had evidence to make the connection:
If Sheriff Dupnik had any shame, he would stop politicizing these deaths and this shooting, now that he has been forced to admit that he is engaging in rank speculation.
Update: The Arizona Tragedy and the Politics of Blood Libel.
——————————————–
Follow me on Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube
Visit the Legal Insurrection Shop on CafePress!
DONATE
Donations tax deductible
to the full extent allowed by law.
Comments
Hey, The Narrative ain't gonna establish itself, Professor. Besides, its way too important to let piddling details get in the way of.
Come on, now- he's been following the events in this country for 75 years! He's got his 15 minutes of fame and he's gonna make sure his opinion is heard, whether it is true or not. It's typical democratic politics "there's got to be a way" to stop this free speech stuff…
He probably has the same level of shame as that three time marrying Newt Gingrich who called for people to vote Republican when a woman murdered her two children.
None of these people have any shame. On the left or right. They're all pandering for attention.
And why did he say that Roll was just dropping by to visit Giffords, an old friend? Either he's a liar or incompetent because one of the charges against Loughner is that Roll was there to talk with Giffords about the immigration PROBLEM, a topic Dipnuk usually likes to elaborate on.
If I lived in Pima County, the recall petition would be filed at 9:00 a.m. tomorrow.
Hey, Quirk. Clearly, you have no shame, either.
We on the Right have been beaten and bullied by the Left for 50 years and this is more of the same. We will stand shoulder to shoulder through this and say, "NO…MORE!"
Here's another guy pandering and finger-pointing and blaming: TPN founder Judson Phillips says "We need to push back harder with the simple truth. The shooter was a liberal lunatic."
Mr Jacobson: Maybe write a post next about this loon Phillips and his egregious unsubstantiated finger pointing.
Answer: No. Reason: He's a Dem pol. It took me about thirty seconds to realize the reason via talking to my wife after this weekend's news blackout. Then it took me an hour or so on the roll to encounter your question. Sorry, it's an active roll. Oh yeah – Answer: No.
I do like the Judge's last name, though. 😉
http://libertyatstake.blogspot.com/
"Because the Only Good Progressive is a Failed Progressive"
Maybe the "good" sheriff needs a Tea Party opponent next time around.
So a left-wing nut (a member of the sheriff's tribe) murders a moderate Democrat and people standing around her for his own sick reasons and that is because he was stoked by Sarah Palin and the Tea Party? Someone should ask him if he is also a Truther suggesting a the same kind of dhimmitude by conservatives as the left suggests for Christians and Jews if they want to "co-exist" with Islam. Same logic.
Only politically-correct speech should be aloud because it doesn't offend the nuts in our society. We just can't risk exercising our freedoms.
What a moron.
Dupnik is over 70 but says he wants to go back to the America he grew up in. Did he sleep through the assassinations of MalcolmX, JFK, RFK, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and the shooting of George Wallace? Maybe he missed the bombings of the Weatherman Underground, or the violent protests of the SDS?
Is that what that clown wants to go back to?
This is a simple attempt to silence the right so the left can dominate the political landscape.
Never let a good tragedy go to waste.
Linked: 'Jared Loughner Fixated on Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, Attended 'Congress On Your Corner" Event in 2007'.
Here is a riddle for y'all: all we have seen has been the Pima County Sheriff Dupnik taking interviews. What is wrong with that picture?
The shooting took place in Tucson, and the Tucson Police department has juridiction over all investigations of crime committed within the city limits, not the Pima County Sheriff's Department.
Unless Arizona laws are completely different than Texas, the first order would be; local police, state police and federal. Not the county.
Professor?
If I don't stroke out over this, I'll live to be 100. I just got off 12 minutes with a talk radio host on a so-called conservative station no less with a host who basically said the Arizona killings occurred as a result of the right, Sarah Palin and talk radio (that ironically pays his salary).
I better disconnect all my electronics and pray for the families.
…..but but but but aren't we supposed to wait until the evidence is in before we go assigning blame? Isn't that what the MSM admonished us to do with the Ft. Hood situation last year….not rush to blame radical Islam for the "man caused disaster"?
Why was this young man so fascinated with mind-control? could he have been under some sort of duress? once again, it is a situation of a "turtle on a fence". there is something else to it……….too convenient with the timing!
To answer your question, no, apparently, Sheriff Dupnik has no shame.
I am heartsick over this, and the families involved DO NOT DESERVE THIS.
An appeal for decency:
http://stopshouting.blogspot.com/2011/01/at-little-over-10-am-on-clear-sunny-day.html
He talks about how we are all supposed to work together for the common good, but he, in his position as Sheriff. refuses to enforce the state law on immigration. That is really working together! Oh, yeah!!
I like the part where he says:
"When people, allegedly credible people who get up in front of cameras and microphones and say things that are not true and try to inflame the public…"
Oh. You mean like a County Sheriff at a press conference, speculating about things he doesn't know are true, but presenting opinions as though they were fact, casting aspersions anyway? That kind of people?
That's why I say liberals are irony impaired.
Must say that Megyn Kelly did a fine and tactful job leading Dupnik to the point she intended to make from the getgo, i.e., this is the pot calling the kettle black.
I keep trying to remind myself that Dupnik and Giffords are friends, so perhaps emotion got the better of his common sense.
The biggest problem with Dupnik's and others' tirades against their political opponents is that repetition of a message WORKS, even if the message is wrong-headed. Just ask a teacher.
The superciliati will repeat the lies over and over and over until the mud sticks.
Since we're talking about convoluted rhetoric, I think people should know how the Communist Party USA has turned logic on its head over this sad event:
http://cpusa.org/communist-party-mourns-victims-in-az-shooting-decries-incitement/
"Yet, the link to rhetoric and violence doesn't end with the Palin and her tea party. It extends to the political leadership of Arizona and the Republican Party, who have fomented laws and policies that logically lead to violence. Starting with the anti-immigrant SB 1070 and banning ethnic studies, leaders like Governor Jan Brewer, and Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio have to take as much responsibility for this violence as Palin and her cohorts. All their condolences ring hollow because of their callous inflammatory rhetoric and romanticization of guns and "Second Amendment remedies". Arizona is burning. It is Ground Zero for this extreme far-right, and their corporate, multi-billionaire sponsors. In the words of Pima County Sheriff Clarence Dupnik in responding to political mood leading to the shooting shooting, "Arizona I think has become the capital. We have become the mecca for prejudice and bigotry."
In the hours after the shooting, some right wing elements seem to have created fake social networking pages in order to associate Loughner with the Left. The full story about the mental state and political motivations for the shooter will hopefully come to light soon. The attempt to paint this suspect as a leftist continues the far-right's use of anti-communism and anti-democratic rhetoric to cover-up their own role in continuing the hate until its logical violent conclusion."
The drumbeat of repetition from the left continues unabated.
The Professor's Video of the Day U.S. President Ronald Reagan assassination attempt is a timely reminder and effective counter-response to the double-standards and idiotic slander from the Left.
Would the Left Blogosphere had liked it if the Media responded by suggesting that Hinckley was 'perhaps' shaped by anti-Republican 'rhetoric' from Carter fans?
And don't forget how the right wing worked that Vincent Foster suicide for ages. Ok. It's true. The right wingers were right. We all know the Clintons did it. Nudge nudge. Wink wink.
What a moral idiot!
Why not call to task those who saw the mental decline of the killer and did nothing about it…anything for G-d's sakes.
Perhaps someone did attempt to help Loughner. But you wouldn't know it from the way the blame game is going.
Either "angry rhetoric" incites violence or it doesn't. Irrespective of who is spewing it.
I remember during the Bush presidency there was a mockumentary that was about the "assassination" of the president. Even John Kerry joked with Bill Maher about Kerry going to kill the "real bird" at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. "with one stone." Both of these events and others, many others, were pooh poohed or downright ignored: "Hey, it's just a movie."
Jared Loughner, Alleged Shooter in Gabrielle Giffords Attack, Described by Classmate as "Left-Wing Pothead"
http://blogs.phoenixnewtimes.com/valleyfever/2011/01/jared_loughner_alleged_shooter.php
The Arizona shootings were like Kwanzaa come early for America's liberal fascists
"How sick do you have to be to start making political capital out of the killing of six people including a nine-year old girl, long before anyone has the remotest clue what the murderer’s motives were, or his political affiliations, or his state of mind?"
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/jamesdelingpole/100071019/the-arizona-shootings-were-like-kwanzaa-come-early-for-americas-liberal-fascists/
Arizona shootings: Will Barack Obama stand up to the Left’s shameful exploitation of a national tragedy?
"While there is not a shred of evidence suggesting the clearly deranged and fundamentally evil gunman was influenced in any way by current political debates, a striking number of liberal pundits and a few politicians have been quick to invoke the names of Sarah Palin and conservative radio talk show hosts such as Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck when talking about the shootings."
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/nilegardiner/100071050/arizona-shootings-will-barack-obama-stand-up-to-the-left%E2%80%99s-shameful-exploitation-of-a-national-tragedy/
A political assasination is being viewed through political lenses.
SAY IT ISN'T SO!
Wrong on both counts – of crosshairs and crop marks.
As the left instantly mobilized to gain political benefit from the tragic Giffords shooting their favorite example was the Sarah Palin "crosshairs" map – for example:
http://gawker.com/5728545/shot-congresswoman-was-in-sarah-palins-crosshairs
They were wrong twice over. Not only was there no connection between Palin and the shooter except the one created by Democrats and the left for political gain, the symbols on Sarah Palin's map were CROP MARKS, used in the printing business to locate a point. They had nothing to do with crosshairs or rifles.
A Google image search for crop marks:
http://www.google.com/images?hl=en&rlz;=&q;=crop+marks&um;=1&ie;=UTF-8&source;=univ&ei;=zQcrTZzuC4W0lQeR6smOAg
Crosshairs look like this:
A Google image search for crosshairs:
http://www.google.com/images?um=1&hl;=en&biw;=1272&bih;=852&tbs;=isch%3A1&sa;=1&q;=crosshairs&btnG;=Search&aq;=f&aqi;=&aql;=&oq;=&gs;_rfai=
Wow, did I stumble onto a weird blog! I don't think the Sheriff mentioned Ms. Palin by name. I think he was referring to the vitriol that seemed to begin with the Tea Party in the Summer of '09, exemplified by the open carrying of assault weapons to political events. In all fairness, I don't believe those were Democrats, but I could be wrong.
Don't know if its true but: http://thechollajumps.wordpress.com/2011/01/09/jared-loughner-is-a-product-of-sheriff-dupniks-office/
Hmmmm, so it looks like the Sheriff's office knew that Loghner made death threats and they told those folks that everything was ok and he was being taken care of. Also looks like they ignored the reports that he was unstable and threatening people in part because his (mother?) worked for the county.
Why, here's a theory as good as any thrown out by the MSM and the left (sorry for being redundant): Sheriff Dupnik and his office knew he was dangerously unstable and had made threats of violence against various members of the community and further, he and his office knew he was obsessed with Congresswoman Giffords. Perhaps they were hoping for an incident that they could then hang on their political enemies, that's why they did nothing about him.
Hey, there's as much evidence of that conclusion as any other regarding why this happened (except for the conclusion that this happened because the guy was a full-blown schizophrenic who became fixated on Congresswoman Giffords before there was a tea party and before Sarah Palin became a national figure).
Certainly law enforcement has some culpablity here. Evidently Arizone has some pretty "progressive" mental health laws and merely petitioning the court is enough to get someone picked up and evaluated. If they need treatment, according to one of the top mental health authorities in the state, they can get it and he'd never heard of anyone being turned down if they were deemed severly mentally ill, REGARDLESS of their insurance status.
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/44/2011/01/jared-loughners-behavior-never.html?wprss=44
From the article: "Any person, including any of the students in Loughner's classes who exchanged worried emails about his strange actions or any of his teachers who sought to have him removed or who wanted him to receive treatment, could have petitioned the court to have him evaluated for mental illness."
Certainly, that includes the Sheriff's Dept.
Professor, Could the statements by Dupnik help the defense of Loughner in any way?
To most – but thankfully not all – who have commented above, I wonder if you know how silly are your condemnations of Sheriff Dupnik's comments. If you care to see a rational reaction to his words, read the following message I sent to his office.
To: Pima County Sheriff's Office
Please pass along to the Sheriff my compliments for his stand recently as he described his feelings related to the shootings at Safeway.
Despite the reaction against you, Sheriff Dupnik, you should know how much in agreement are numerous Americans across the country with your comments. You have focused on the issue of impressions and not – as your detractors claim – the issue of pointing blame.
I praise you for that focus because it is impression and influence that all the sour rhetoric we hear has on people who are least likely to behave rationally. You are so right. I am a retired school teacher and during my 38 years it has always been an understanding that what I say and the way I say it can profoundly affect others.
I join you in calling for those who disagree with one another to remember that it is all right to say "I respectfully disagree" instead of uttering words that go way beyond disagreement into name-calling, labeling, fear-mongering and even hatred for those on the other side of a particular issue.
Those who cannot recognize how imagery such as "cross hairs" and "reload" have the power to trigger emotions beyond anyone's control are as pathetic and the events of last weekend are tragic.
Cudos to you and God bless.